Thurles Information

The current Anti-Semitism continues a centuries-long phenomenon in Europe, having possibly reached its zenith during the Nazi era (1933–1945) in Germany.
‘The Holocaust’ was Nazi Germany’s deliberate, organized, state-sponsored persecution and genocide of European Jews. During WWII, the existing Nazi regime systematically murdered about six million of the Jewish population.

Why are Jews Targeted? The Origins of Antisemitism

Today the “Auschwitz Album,” containing some 193 photographs; compiled between May or June of 1944, either by Ernst Hofmann or by Bernhard Walter, remain the only surviving known visual evidence of the process of the mass murder of Jews at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Both above named individuals were SS men, who had been tasked with taking ID photos and fingerprints of inmates.

In November 1938, German Jews faced deliberate and orchestrated violence, showing many Jews that their very existence was in danger, if they stayed within the country.
In a Nazi-provoked riot, known as Kristallnacht [Night of Broken Glass, or the November Pogrom* ] staged on November 9th, 1938, more than 250 synagogues were destroyed, and 91 people were murdered. Countless Jewish businesses and homes were vandalized and destroyed, and some 30,000 Jewish men were sent to Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen and other concentration camps, where they were coerced into promising to emigrate, when they were released several weeks later.

* ‘Pogrom’ meaning the organized massacre of a particular ethnic group.

It became difficult for Jews to leave Germany because few countries, were willing to take them in, even though it was widely known that they were suffering under the then Nazi regime.

It was Ms Lilly Jacob-Zelmanovic Meier who donated the album, in the video shown above, to Yad Vashem (The World Holocaust Remembrance Centre) in 1980. When originally assembled, the album was likely not for use as Nazi propaganda, but was most likely prepared as an official document for future German reference.

The Irish Constitution of 1937 specifically gave constitutional protection to Jews. This was considered to be a necessary component to the constitution by Éamon de Valera because of the treatment of Jews elsewhere in Europe at the time. The reference to the Jewish Congregations in the Irish Constitution was removed in 1973 with the Fifth Amendment. This same amendment removed the ‘special position’ of the Catholic Church, as well as references to the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterian Church, the Methodist Church, and the Religious Society of Friends, the Quakers.

Anti-Israeli protests by some 100 students in Trinity College, Dublin, has now resulted in an agreement by college management to the divestment from investments in Israeli companies that have activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and appear on a UN blacklist.
However, It is worthy of note that a one former graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, a Cork woman and a Quaker (Society of Friends) named Mary Elmes used her skills having crossed the border into France working as head of the Quaker delegation in Perpignan, France. Her presence saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish children bound for Auschwitz-Birkenau, via Rivesaltes Camp in the north eastern suburb of Paris, latter the major transit camp for the deportations of French Jews. She is known to have “spirited away” children in the boot of her car, to children’s homes she had previously set up in the Pyrenees.
In 1943 she was arrested by the Gestapo and spent six months in jail. On release she continued her mission to save the lives of Jewish children. She refused all suggestion of accolades during her lifetime, but 11 years ago, in 2013 she was named “Righteous Among the Nations” at Yad Vashem (The World Holocaust Remembrance Centre). She is the only Irish person to hold this distinction, given to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jewish people during World War II. On July 9th 2019, the then Cork City Council, in a display of true wisdom, opened a new pedestrian bridge, same now named in honour of Ms Mary Elmes.

A former professor of Hebrew at the same Trinity College, between 1939 and 1979, Mr Jacob (Jack) Weingreen and his wife Bertha must surely have turned in their Dublin graves following the demands by the same students. Both the Weingreen’s were members of the Dublin Jewish community and both were active in education and youth movements, serving for a time with the Jewish Relief Unit, following the end of WWII.

Bertha Weingreen was Chief Welfare Officer responsible for all Jewish Displaced Persons in the British zone and stationed at the former military barracks at the Bergen Belsen, concentration camp.

Jacob was Director of Education for all Displaced Persons, before setting up a successful Trade School at Belsen which was later transformed into a top-grade technical college. Professor Weingreen was the author of ‘A Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew’, latter a textbook that is still recognized as the standard teaching work on the subject.
The couple received desperately needed supplies sent from Dublin’s JYRO (Jewish Youth Relief Organisation) and the Linen Mills in Northern Ireland, which were used for the kindergarten Bertha set up for hidden children Bertha Weingreen encountered in Berlin. The Weingreens eventually returned to Dublin in 1947 where they played prominent roles in the Irish Jewish community until their deaths in 1995 and 1999, respectively.

True pro-treaty Irish Republicans will be aware of the fact that on a Friday afternoon in 1920, Black and Tans descended on Longwood Avenue, South Circular Road, Portobello, Dublin 8, blocking off the area between Leonard’s Corner and Kelly’s corner, using a lorry and an armoured car. Same raid came accompanied by a strict curfew.

The Sabbath day observed by Jews begins from sunset on Friday evening to sunset the following day. However, on this same Sabbath day in 1920, the Jewish community made the decision that Tans or no Tans, they were going to visit their local synagogue. When it was time to go to pray, the men were the first to emerge from their homes, followed by wives and children.
Rabbi Gudansky followed last, accompanied by his family, while he supported an elderly gentleman, who could barely walk. The old crippled man swore at the Tans in Yiddish, which sounded like nonsense gibberish to the Black and Tan soldiers.
It appeared that residents from Longwood Avenue’s Jewish community had somehow lost the ability to speak English that evening, as Tan soldiers were bombarded with Yiddish, Russian, Lithuanian, and Polish dialects. The Black and Tans, in an effort to rid themselves of this now gathering angry crowd, decided to step aside and allow the Jewish community to continue to attend at their place of worship.
On reaching Walworth Road, Portobello, Dublin, Rabbi Gudansky and his aged companion, halted briefly before shaking hands. The man removed his hat and boomed: “Thank you! Thank you!” in his strong Cork accent. The ‘cripple’ was none other than Michael Collins (1890 – 1922) in disguise. He winked stating: “I will send for the bicycle later”, before quickly moving on alone.
It was learned later that Collins first entered Joseph Kervon’s house, on Longwood Avenue, before he jumped over a wall into Rabbi Gudansky’s back garden, latter situated next door. He entered the residence, unnoticed by the Tans, before borrowing traditional Jewish garb, courtsey of Rabbi Gudansky.

Sadly, to my mind, the current Irish Taoiseach Mr Simon Harris (A former Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science) has informed Israeli President Mr Isaac Herzog of Ireland’s plan to recognise the state of Palestine and has reiterated that the overarching goal should be a two-state solution; latter which Hamas terrorists themselves have denounced, calling instead for the full and complete liberation of Palestine, “from the river (Jordan) to the sea”; an area that includes what is now Israel, and in the context of the current wishes of Hamas can only mean the total destruction of the State of Israel.

In return the Israeli President has warned Mr Simon Harris that any such unilateral recognition of Palestine, as a State, will totally jeopardise any hope of Hamas releasing the hostages it continues to hold in Gaza, and will no doubt encourage further missile and other attacks on the State of Israel.

History will record the outcome of this interference by the present Irish government.